Divorce Act of 2018 was submitted by the House Committee on Population and Family Relations on February 28, 2018. It was approved on March 19, 2018 on Third Reading - with 134 in favor, 57 against, and 2 abstentions. Under the bill, the grounds for a judicial decree of absolute divorce are as follows: 1. The grounds for legal separation under Article 55 of the Family Code, modified or amended, as follows: a. Physical violence or grossly abusive conduct directed against the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner; b. Physical violence or moral pressure to compel the petitioner to change religious or political affiliation; c. Attempt of respondent to corrupt or induce the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner, to engage in prostitution, or connivance in such corruption or inducement; d. Final judgment sentencing the respondent to imprisonment of more than six (6) years, even if pardoned; e. Drug addiction or habitual alcoholism or chronic gambling of the respondent; f. Homosexuality of the respondent; g. Contracting by the respondent of a subsequent bigamous marriage, whether in the Philippines or abroad; h. Marital infidelity or perversion or having a child with another person other than one's spouse during the marriage, except when upon the mutual agreement of the spouses, a child is born to them by in vitro or a similar procedure or when the wife bears a child after being a victim of rape; i. Attempt by the respondent against the life of the petitioner, a common child or a child of the petitioner; and j. Abandonment of petitioner by respondent without justifiable cause for more than one (1) year. When the spouses are legally separated by judicial decree for more than two (2) years, either or both spouses can petition the proper court for an absolute divorce based on said judicial decree of legal separation. 1. Grounds for annulment of marriage under Article 45 of the Family Code, restated as follows: a. The party in whose behalf it is sought to have the marriage annulled was eighteen (18) years of age or over but below twenty-one (21), and the marriage was solemnized without the consent of the parents, guardian or person having substitute parental authority over the party, in that order, unless after attaining the age of twentyone (21), such party freely cohabited with the other and both lived together as husband or wife; b. either party was of unsound mind, unless such party after coming to reason, freely cohabited with the other as husband and wife; c. The consent of either party was obtained by fraud, unless such party afterwards with full knowledge of the facts constituting the fraud, freely cohabited with the other as husband and wife; d. The consent of either party was obtained by force, intimidation or undue influence, unless the same having disappeared or ceased, such party thereafter freely cohabited with the other as husband and wife; e. Either party was physically incapable of consummating the marriage with the other and such incapacity continues or appears to be incurable; and f. Either party was afflicted with a sexually transmissible infection found to be serious or appears to be incurable. Provided, That the grounds mentioned in b, e and f existed either at the time of the marriage or supervening after the marriage. 1. When the spouses have been separated in fact for at least five (5) years at the time the petition for absolute divorce is filed, and reconciliation is highly improbable; 2. Psychological incapacity of either spouse as provided for in Article 36 of the Family Code, whether or not the incapacity was present at the time of the celebration of the marriage or later; 3. When one of the spouses undergoes a gender reassignment surgery or transitions from one sex to another, the other spouse is entitled to petition for absolute divorce with the transgender or transsexual as respondent, or vice-versa; 4. Irreconcilable marital differences and conflicts which have resulted in the total breakdown of the marriage beyond repair, despite earnest and repeated efforts at reconciliation. To be sure, a good number of the Filipinos led by the Roman Catholic Church react adversely to any attempt to enact a law on absolute divorce, viewing it as contrary to our customs, morals, and traditions that has looked upon marriage and family as an institution and their nature of permanence, inviolability, and solidarity. However, none of our laws should be based on any religious law, doctrine, or teaching; otherwise, the separation of Church and State will be violated.[75] In the same breath that the establishment clause restricts what the government can do with religion, it also limits what religious sects can or cannot do. They can neither cause the government to adopt their particular doctrines as policy for everyone, nor can they cause the government to restrict other groups. To do so, in simple terms, would cause the State to adhere to a particular religion and, thus, establish a state religion. [76] The Roman Catholic Church can neither impose its beliefs and convictions on the State and the rest of the citizenry nor can it demand that the nation follow its beliefs, even if it sincerely believes that they are good for the country.[77] While marriage is considered a sacrament, it has civil and legal consequences which are governed by the